Podnews Daily - podcast industry and podcasting news
Daily news for people in podcasting - from Apple Podcasts to Spotify and YouTube; Amy Poehler to Crime Junkie and Joe Rogan, indie podcasting to the biggest hits. Whether it's the newest show from Goalhanger, the latest signing from The Ringer, advertising information from Magellan AI or Podtrac, research including the most popular podcasts to listen to, or updates from The Daily from The New York Times, we cover it all, every weekday. Podnews also covers the latest podcast jobs and events - and we help you with new podcasts to listen to. Our podcast is updated weekdays at 7a...
Brand suitability for Amazon Ads DVA+
Sponsored by SoundStack. Your new revenue opportunity lives in existing podcast content. Rediscover, repurpose, and monetize more of the audio and video you already have with SoundStack AI. Learn more
First look: Barometer announced a brand suitability solution for Amazon Ads DVA+. Advertisers can activate Barometer's pre-bid brand suitability, to check that every podcast episode meets advertiser brand guidelines. Amazon Ads DVA+ is a new way to produce display, video and audio campaigns, all in one place. Advertisers typically require brand suitability data to avoid putting their ads next to content they don't want to be associated...Podcast network Fable and Folly is to close
Sponsored by SoundStack. Your new revenue opportunity lives in existing podcast content. Rediscover, repurpose, and monetize more of the audio and video you already have with SoundStack AI. Learn more
The audio fiction podcast network Fable and Folly is to close at the end of this year. The network blames a change in podcast advertising for its closure. However, the network says: "The shows you love aren't going away; they're just heading to new homes. Through the end of the year, we're helping our producers migrate their shows and connect with new hosting and advertising partners, so the...Apple Podcasts algorithm drops country-specific curation
Sponsored by SoundStack. Your new revenue opportunity lives in existing podcast content. Rediscover, repurpose, and monetize more of the audio and video you already have with SoundStack AI. Learn more
Apple Podcasts has always had an impressive set of region-specific editorial content, ensuring that locally-made shows, among other relevant podcasts, have been promoted to audiences. Until now. Podnews has learnt from multiple sources - amid increasing industry frustration - that Apple Podcasts is no longer showing a country-based editorially-curated view to users in the "Home" and "New" sections in the Apple Podcasts app. Instead, Apple is showing an...Reach of podcasts stays steady: The Podcast Landscape 2026
Sponsored by SoundStack. Your new revenue opportunity lives in existing podcast content. Rediscover, repurpose, and monetize more of the audio and video you already have with SoundStack AI. Learn more
Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026 was released. Overall reach of podcasts remains steady at 74% of all Americans; but 34% of podcast consumers say they started consuming podcasts within the past year, up from 28% in 2025. As we heard at Podcast Movement a few weeks ago, in its first year carrying podcasts, Netflix was named by 21% of podcast consumers as a platform they had used in the past 12 months, placing it third...Podcast Movement NYC puts all sessions online
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Better thumbnails. Smarter clips. More viewers. Bring your video podcast questions to The Podglomerate’s webinar later today, featuring YouTube Podcasts’ Strategic Partner Manager. Register here.
Happy International Podcast Day! Podigee has shared a short film, The Voice Carries to celebrate podcasts, the people who make them, and to everyone who listens.
Just in time for International Podcast Day, Podcast Movement has posted the sessions from Podcast Movement NYC, now available for free. There are 82 different sessions to watch, from every stage at the event. Next year, Podcast Week NYC will be held...Was Inception Point AI just a PR stunt?
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Better thumbnails. Smarter clips. More viewers. Bring your video podcast questions to The Podglomerate’s September 30 webinar featuring YouTube Podcasts’ Strategic Partner Manager. Register here.
Exclusive: Inception Point AI's thousands of AI-made podcasts could just have been a publicity stunt, according to a new episode of The Lead Balloon podcast, to be released today. CEO Jeanine Wright is interviewed on the show, saying that some publicity was "a PR strategy to get attention". We learn that the Quiet Please network now only has 300 active shows, which they're no longer trying to monetise. Wright tells Podn...Patreon removes “per-creation” memberships: goes monthly only
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. More downloads start with a plan. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Marketing covers the tactics, tools, and channels to help more people discover your show.
Patreon is removing a legacy "per-creation" membership, forcing creators to move to charging a per-month fee instead. A "per-creation" membership was particularly useful for some podcasters, especially audio drama producers, who don't make "always-on" material. Paolo from GrowthMasteryHub takes a closer look - and notes that the hard part isn't just choosing your new price. Congratulations to Jack Laurence, who has just passed 1.5 million downloads for his...YouTube reveals new features
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. More downloads start with a plan. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Marketing covers the tactics, tools, and channels to help more people discover your show.
YouTube made a number of announcements at Made on YouTube, the company's annual event. YouTube is to add a voice likeness detection tool, to help creators sign up for deepfake detection. The company is also launching A/B video testing, where different videos can be tried to see which work better. YouTube Music premium subscribers will get a "new personalized AI-audio guide available in the YouTube...Why help the big gatekeepers?
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. More downloads start with a plan. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Marketing covers the tactics, tools, and channels to help more people discover your show.
"I’m not sure why we are feeding our content to one of the biggest gatekeepers in media." Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster has published an overview of his talk at Podcast Movement last week. "You can put your show on YouTube or on Spotify, promote it there, and as long as you don’t violate the terms of service, you stay there. You cannot put your show on N...Acast: “the format argument is over”
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. More downloads start with a plan. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Marketing covers the tactics, tools, and channels to help more people discover your show.
88% of podcast consumers are consuming both audio and video - up ten points from last year. And, 63% of listeners start an episode in one format and finish it in another, according to Acast's new Podcast Pulse 2026, researched across thirteen markets by research firm Differentology. “The industry spent years arguing over formats, but audiences moved on long ago,” said Greg Glenday, CEO at Acast. “A podcast fan’s decision...Apple & Google making money from ad-blocking podcast apps
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. More downloads start with a plan. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Marketing covers the tactics, tools, and channels to help more people discover your show.
Far from being a friend of podcast creators, Apple and Google are making money from an ad-skipping podcast app, Podnews can reveal today. The app, called Podtastic, takes podcasts and automatically skips the ads on-device, charging $9.99 a month - none of which goes to creators, but up to 30% goes direct to Google and Apple's own app stores. Automatically skipping the ads in this way means that advertising...Agencies agree to only buy on “engaged views”
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. From first recording to final export. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Production walks you through every step, with real examples and platform recommendations.
At the Sounds Profitable Business Summit last week, ADOPTER Media, Right Side Up and Oxford Road announced that they will only use YouTube's Engaged Views to count YouTube impressions for buying advertising. You can watch the announcement here. YMH Studios have also made a similar statement. Oxford Road's Dan Granger said that the industry should "get a little fed up" and make our voices heard. YouTube suddenly changed...Are podcasts at the front of the store?
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. From first recording to final export. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Production walks you through every step, with real examples and platform recommendations.
Are podcasts at the front of the store? Showing a preview of data from the upcoming Podcast Landscape 2026 study at Podcast Movement NYC, Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster revealed that, for the first time, the top three places where people have "ever" consumed podcasts are not dedicated podcast apps. YouTube, Spotify and Netflix don't show podcasts front-and-centre when using them, requiring users to dive into menus to discover any podcasts...IAB: a new framework is “not needed” for measurement
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. From first recording to final export. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Production walks you through every step, with real examples and platform recommendations.
At the IAB Podcast Upfront during Podcast Week, Jason Adamski of the IAB announced a new downloadable guide focusing on (among other things) the measurement of video podcasting. The IAB appears to reject a medium-agnostic measurement standard like the recently-released AMP Accords, saying "the solution is not to build a new framework from scratch", and instead suggests that we use two separate standards from the IAB Tech Lab...A new home for Kevin Roose and Casey Newton
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. From first recording to final export. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Production walks you through every step, with real examples and platform recommendations.
First look: The creators of the New York Times's Hard Fork, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, are to join NPR - for a new show called Machine Gods. Starting in October, it's the first deal under new Chief Content Officer Nadine Zylstra: it will be in video, and will also be aired on NPR member stations from early next year. Zylstra and NPR CEO Katherine Maher will discuss the...Ira Glass: Podcasts go deeper, and so do the ads
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. From first recording to final export. The Podglomerate's free Ultimate Guide to Podcast Production walks you through every step, with real examples and platform recommendations.
In the opening Sounds Profitable Business Summit session, with plenty of ear-catching audio, Ira Glass from This American Life highlighted "what podcasts do better". Podcasts go so much deeper than what most influencers are putting out there, he said - and that means a deeper connection - which also means that the ads work harder. The Business Summit kicks off Podcast Week in New York City; with buyers and...Podcast Week kicks off in NYC
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Ready to turn your downloads into dollars? Get The Podglomerate’s free guide to podcast monetization, including ad revenue calculations, sponsorship strategy, subscriptions, and more.
Podcast Week kicks off in New York NY, USA, today - a week of events focusing on podcasting. Today and tomorrow, the Sounds Profitable Business Summit brings together the business of podcasting with those that buy it - a one-stage event with an emphasis on networking. Then, the 2026 IAB Podcast Upfront takes place on Wednesday, unveiling the content coming up for brands to work with; and finally, Podcast Movement on...Substack adds a podcast tab to its app
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Ready to turn your downloads into dollars? Get The Podglomerate’s free guide to podcast monetization, including ad revenue calculations, sponsorship strategy, subscriptions, and more.
Substack has launched a new podcast tab in its app: "a dedicated space where you can easily reach your existing listeners, and help new listeners find you". The tab lists shows from Substack creators. The company tells Podnews that "creators publishing podcasts collectively earn over $200 million per year on Substack" - here's a list of the most popular. Substack has also published download and view numbers from the Or...“Cinematic” podcast studio opens in Hollywood
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Ready to turn your downloads into dollars? Get The Podglomerate’s free guide to podcast monetization, including ad revenue calculations, sponsorship strategy, subscriptions, and more.
A new "cinematic podcast studio" has opened in Los Angeles. Goldmine Podcast Studio features an adaptable set, an engineer on-site and same-day ready-for-edit files. It's in the heart of the Hollywood Media District in Seward St. YouTube's changes to views are concerning, suggests Glenn Rubenstein from ADOPTER Media. The changes were seemingly rushed through in August, with creators given less than a week to prepare. "Sure, now it makes it...Acast’s big European hire and management re-org
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Ready to turn your downloads into dollars? Get The Podglomerate’s free guide to podcast monetization, including ad revenue calculations, sponsorship strategy, subscriptions, and more.
Podcast monetisation company Acast has made a new and significant senior hire - Liv Sandberg will become EVP, Europe from early 2027. She joins from TikTok, Facebook and Starcom, and has served on the IAB Sweden board since 2019. She also won Role Model of the Year at the Nordic Women in Tech Awards in 2024. It means that all of Acast's businesses in Europe now have a single regional leader. Ac...Bobby Bones celebrates ten years of podcasting
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Bobby Bones is celebrating ten years of The BobbyCast. The show now has over 92 million monthly social media impressions and 5.4 million social media followers. His show, with iHeartPodcasts, spawned the Nashville Podcast Network; and is now also available on Netflix. The oldest podcast host? 95 year-old Dominic Chianese, who played Corrado "Junior" Soprano on The Sopranos, just launched a new show called Dominic & Junior with his son Dominic Chianese Jr. We...26,000 tickets sold last weekend for Goalhanger’s Fest
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Get YouTube podcast strategy straight from the source. Join The Podglomerate for a free webinar featuring YouTube Podcasts’ Strategic Partner Manager on video production, marketing, and monetization. Register here
What can fill the whole of London's Southbank Centre for three days, and sell 26,000 tickets? Podcasting. Goalhanger's The Rest Is Fest took place over the weekend, with 22 shows and live podcasting from the Goalhanger stable of podcasts. We've tons of pictures to show how big podcasting can be. Fyyd, a German-language podcast directory, is to close - after receiving a copyright claim for unauthorised use of...Apple Podcasts updates embedded player
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Apple Podcasts has updated its embedded player for websites - which allows you to embed episodes or your show. The player supports video and trailers. While plays from the Apple Podcasts web embed are not displayed in Apple Podcasts Connect Analytics, they'll be in your podcast host, and it's a great way to make it easy for new listeners. Podcasts you love, from people you tr...'The Daily' offers five things to know about podcasting
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Get YouTube podcast strategy straight from the source. Join The Podglomerate for a free webinar featuring YouTube Podcasts’ Strategic Partner Manager on video production, marketing, and monetization. Register here
Rachel Quester, Supervising Producer of The Daily, shared five things she's learned with the audience at Radiodays Asia, which has just wrapped-up in Jakarta. "Have a clear, simple, intentional mission statement" ... "Figure out new ways to tell the same story" ... "Challenge yourself to not become formulaic" ... "Meet your audience where they are (don't try to be the smartest person in the room)" ... and "Find someone wh...Podcasting in 2026 is “beyond audio”
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Get YouTube podcast strategy straight from the source. Join The Podglomerate for a free webinar featuring YouTube Podcasts’ Strategic Partner Manager on video production, marketing, and monetization. Register here
Speaking at Radiodays Asia today, Ron Baetiong from Podcast Network Asia highlighted the difficulty of earning revenue from traditional podcasts in the region. 80-90% of media budgets are already allocated, he said; audio podcasts are among the many things fighting for the 10% left. "It's hard to build a business when you're begging for scraps". Instead, he highlighted the opportunities beyond audio: YouTube videos, TikTok's longform po...One click to get into 16 podcast directories
Sponsored by The Podglomerate. Get YouTube podcast strategy straight from the source. Join The Podglomerate for a free webinar featuring YouTube Podcasts’ Strategic Partner Manager on video production, marketing, and monetization. Register here
Over 70% of active podcasts aren't in all the podcast directories that they could be. That's the surprise discovery by podcast host Buzzsprout: which has redesigned its directory submissions process to add your podcast to 16 directories in just one click. In the two weeks since launch, the company says that more than 5,200 Buzzsprout podcasts have added at least one directory where they weren’t listed before. ...A big network moves distribution to Flightcast
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In Australia, LiSTNR has partnered with Flightcast to power its podcasting distribution, including video. More than 150 shows will move onto Flightcast, which was launched by Steven Bartlett and Rox Codes in Oct 2025 - it's the company's biggest customer yet. LiSTNR is run by Australia's largest commercial radio company SCA: they currently use Triton's Omny Studio for podcast hosting. Triton Digital and radio playout provider RCS have announced programmatic audio advertising for broadcast radio...Keynotes announced for Podcast Movement NYC
Sponsored by Magellan AI. CBC swapped generic trailers for episode-specific promos and nearly tripled conversion, measured by Magellan AI. See how they did it
Podcast Movement announced two keynotes - Tom Webster will give a preview of The Podcast Landscape 2026, while TINK Media's Lauren Passell and Arielle Nissenblatt (above) will explain "WTF is a podcast in 2026". Tickets are available here. Podcast Movement has also announced it is to celebrate sponsors and attendees with a billboard in Times Square (upload your logo through the Swapcard app); and "podcast newsletter checkups" with beehiiv through the event. And, Arielle Nissenblatt...Building in public: Podsqueeze
Sponsored by Magellan AI. When CBC hosts guested on other podcasts, those appearances converted at around 13%, tracked by Magellan AI. Read their story
Building in public: the founders of Podsqueeze appeared on Jason Cohen's Smart Bear Live, and on his YouTube channel alongside the founder of Castos Craig Hewitt, in a workshop discussing how the company's growth has plateaued, and what they might want to do to continue growing. It's a helpful (and honest) view about producing tools for podcasting. This tap has been turned back on... on Monday, we covered The Parent Tap being wrongly kicked off...July’s top podcast ad spender
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Join Magellan AI and Sounds Profitable on September 10th to unpack Q2 measurement trends across the podcast market. Register for the webinar
Quince is buying more podcast ads than anyone else, says Magellan AI - spending $7.5mn in July. BetterHelp and Amazon spent around $5.4mn. Meanwhile, Hero Bread, Accenture and Lululemon were the biggest movers and shakers. Magellan AI has a free webinar on Sep 10. Crooked Media has acquired the FiveThirtyEight politics podcast - kind of. Its founder Nate Silver sold the brand to Disney; but was laid off in 2023. The podcast podfaded in...Podcast Movement NYC releases full schedule
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Trees.com used to burst audio spend in-season, then drop it to zero. Magellan AI helped it stay always-on for the first time. See how they scaled
The full schedule for Podcast Movement NYC has been published on the website. There are announcements still to come for the keynote sessions. We're told that the event will be using Swapcard, as previous years, so you'll have an app to plan it all. Tickets are still available. Podbean podcasters were given a shock this week, as the company rolled out new filters to its download analytics "...Turned off: YouTube suddenly pulls podcast
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Trees.com used Magellan AI to cut waste and lift audio efficiency 96% year over year. See how they did it
Top 10 parenting podcast The Parent Tap has been suddenly pulled from YouTube - apparently by an automated tool. With no strikes or warnings, the show was permanently pulled on August 14th, accusing the channel of trying to circumvent a ban: a ban that the channel owner says simply didn't happen. An attempt to appeal the closure was knocked back almost instantly by YouTube, using an automated template. Ryan McDonough, the channel's owner, has opened...Good news - the power is with us in podcasting
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Smarter signals, smarter podcast decisions. See how in Beyond the Buy, from Magellan AI and True Native Media. Download the guide
The power is in our hands, says Losh Moodaley in an eagerly-anticipated new article for Podnews. Power might be being consolidated by the platforms that control distribution - and it's especially the case for podcasting's middle-class - but the good news is that there are ways to gain economic leverage and own many parts of the relationships needed for podcasting, she says. It's nice to read good news at the end of...Who’s flying this thing: publishers, or ad-tech?
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Join Magellan AI today at 12P ET for a live look at where Q2 podcast ad dollars went. Join the webinar
"Should a publisher’s commercial decisions be honored by the technology they pay for?" Flightpath is shipping a tool today called Automation Playbooks, a new tool to combat what it calls unreliable ad delivery from podcast ad-tech partners. The tool logs in regularly to check all campaigns against delivery, and to make changes to live orders. The release quotes one frustrated Head of Revenue at a podcast network: "Being asked to re-flight thousands of...Publishers “should ignore” new YouTube view numbers
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Rhapsody Voices uses Magellan AI to help land 30%+ of every show's sponsors. Read their story
Yesterday's announcement from YouTube of a new way to calculate "views" should be ignored by all publishers, says Zachary Boone from YMH Studios. The company will only report on "Engaged Views", the original view metric from YouTube, which is widely believed to have a 30-second minimum. Boone says the change "opens the door for unsavory actors to misrepresent their numbers," and calls for other publishers and networks to commit to the same. Spotify Creative Lab has shown an example...YouTube changes how “views” are calculated
Sponsored by Magellan AI. With Magellan AI, Rhapsody Voices sold 80%+ of its ad inventory on two shows in back-to-back quarters. See how they did it
A week after YouTube altered the numbers you need before you start making money, YouTube's visible definition of a "play" (or "view") is also to change. From August 24, a public view will be counted "the moment a video begins to play from the very first frame". Creators still have access to "engaged views", which YouTube publicly says is "how many times viewers stayed to watch past the first frame and initial seconds"...Spotify: unskippable ads for them, skipped ads for us?
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Q2's podcast ad spend numbers are in. Get Magellan AI's Benchmark Report. Download now
Exclusive: A few weeks ago, Podnews broke the story that Spotify is testing a "Skip ahead" ad-skipping tool for some customers. Perhaps making the most of its dominant market position, today we note that Spotify is selling its own unskippable podcast ads; and we discover that its terms and conditions gives Spotify the legal right to automatically skip everyone else's. The Ambies are open for entry from today. There are two new categories - best music and episode of...Podcast causes diplomatic incident
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Aircheck review across 30+ shows used to take days. Direct Results cut it to hours with Magellan AI. See their approach
An appearance on a comedy podcast by the Australian Prime Minister has resulted in an international diplomatic incident. In July, Anthony Albanese was criticised for responding to a game of "shag, marry, date" with the answer "Kylie Minogue, all of the above", and was forced to apologise. Now, political opponents, aided by the Murdoch press, have complained about a gesture Albanese made when he was describing two melons he was gifted by Japan's (female...Podcast Movement NYC reveals first set of speakers
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Direct Results found 30-second ads drove more purchases than 60s, then shifted their whole mix. See what the data showed
Podcast Movement has revealed featured speakers for the event in NYC in September. Among the speakers are Greg Glenday, the CEO of Acast, beehiiv's Ainsley Rossitto, and our Editor, James Cridland. Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster will also be unveiling new research. Tickets are available now. Alex Cooper's Unwell network has received a strategic investment from WTSL, an investment firm. The investment figure isn't known; but according to The Hollywood Reporter, values Unwell at $500mn...Acast acquires Backyard Ventures
Sponsored by Magellan AI. Find out where Q2 podcast ad dollars went, live with Magellan AI on August 20. Sign up for the webinar
Podcast marketplace Acast has acquired Backyard Ventures, a US-based podcast network, for US $20mn. Backyard Ventures is home to podcasts like Piers Morgan's Uncensored, Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic, and audiences of more than 230 million. The team from Backyard Ventures will stay with the business; the brand will be retired as the company is integrated into Acast. Backyard shows are currently hosted and monetised by ART19 and Megaphone. The Podcast Consultant has acquired B2B...